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Saturday, December 4, 2010

Asian Impressions

I just came back two days ago from a long trip to Asia for work - visiting suppliers and all that - which took us not only to Hong Kong and Hangzhou where I had already been, but also to Korea, in spite of the alarming news we were assured it was completely safe: the usual fighting about their borders and a bit of a media hype, it seems. In any case everybody in Seoul seemed unconcerned, but you never know with Asians...

Ah, yes, stereotypes, don't we all fall in the same trap? For us the East is mysterious and at first glance everything (and let's be frank, everybody) looks kind of the same, but you just need to pay a little attention for this veil of uniformity to fall off. Of course there are cultural differences that make understanding sometimes difficult, even with the people we know quite well, like our Asian colleagues from our Hong Kong office, but it's just as difficult for them to deal with us.

And obviously every place you visit is different (the people, the food, the cities). Hong Kong is perhaps the most easy to grasp because the British have been there for so long and so many foreigners live there. Hangzhou, in China, shocked me the most, it's a pretty drab industrial city for all I have seen (but I've probably missed the "real" Hangzhou), and the stark contrast between the "new" China of luxury cars and Chanel stores (literally) next to maimed and disfigured beggars is very hard.

And I had never been before in Seoul, and it seemed very interesting, though we stayed three days. Very modern, dynamic, and we were lucky one day to finish our meetings earlier than scheduled and quickly visit the Changdeokgung Palace and the Myeong-Dong shopping district. Koreans seemed at first a bit more serious than the Chinese, but in the end, when communication flows, we are all the same: some friendly, some touchy, some with a sense of humor, some shy. I think that's what I like most about traveling: getting to know the people.